Georgia bids farewell to Patriarch-Catholicos Ilia II: details of the funeral ceremony

A solemn farewell and burial ceremony was held in Tbilisi for Patriarch-Catholicos of All Georgia Ilia II, who led the Georgian Orthodox Church for 49 years. National mourning was declared in the country, and thousands of citizens gathered in the capital to pay their last respects to their spiritual leader.

According to Orthodox Times, the funeral service at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Sameba) was presided over by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The service was attended by Metropolitan Shio, the patriarch’s locum tenens, as well as heads and representatives of numerous local churches, including delegations from Bulgaria, Albania, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Jerusalem, Russia, the United States and Ukraine.

The ceremony was attended by Georgia’s top political leadership, including the President, Prime Minister and Mayor of Tbilisi. Among the foreign guests of honor were Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturian and Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis Speaker Sahiba Gafarova. Also present at the mourning event was the honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream Party Bidzina Ivanishvili.

After the service in Sameba, the coffin with the body of the Patriarch was taken to the historic Zion Cathedral. A «corridor of honor» was organized along the entire route of the procession, along which the Georgian Defense Forces soldiers with state flags stood. According to the last will of Ilia II, he was buried in the Cathedral of Sion, with only clergy present at the burial ceremony itself, according to the rules.